


Tokens

by StBridget



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Moving In Together, Sentimental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-17 01:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11265243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StBridget/pseuds/StBridget
Summary: Mac thinks Jack's a pack rat, but there's a story behind everything.





	Tokens

**Author's Note:**

> MacGyver is property of CBS and its creators.
> 
> More fluff in my campaign against the dark. :)
> 
> This started off based on the prompt "How could I not see it?" "You did see it, but you married me anyway". Like a lot of plot bunnies, it got away from me. :)

“How can you have so much stuff?” Angus “Mac” MacGyver demanded of his partner and boyfriend, Jack Dalton.  He dumped what he was sure was the hundredth box into the back of the rental truck.  “There’s no way we can fit all this stuff into my place.”

Jack set the box he was carrying down next to Mac’s.  “Sure, we can.  I fit it all in here, and your place is much bigger.”

It was true.  That’s why Jack was moving into Mac’s place and not vice versa.  Even though Mac shared his house with his best friend, Wilt Bozer, it was still much bigger than Jack’s tiny, one-bedroom apartment.  “Yeah, but we’ve already got two people’s stuff.”

“We can fit it,” Jack said, confidently.  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Mac wiped an arm across his sweaty brow.  Summer in LA was a horrible time to move.  What had possessed them to do this now, and in the middle of the afternoon, no less?  It may be only 80 degrees, but it felt like 100 with all the heavy lifting they were doing.  He reminded himself he’d worked in a lot worse conditions—he’d been in Afghanistan in the summer, for heaven’s sake—but it was small comfort at the moment.  “Jack, this is ridiculous.  You have to get rid of some of these.”

“Why?” Jack asked, stubbornly.  “I’m not asking you to get rid of any of your stuff to make room for mine.”

Mac took a sip of water.  “Yeah, but I don’t have nearly this much junk.  You were in the army, for heaven’s sake.  You moved around constantly.  Shouldn’t you be used to traveling light?”

“Maybe that’s why I have so much ‘junk’ as you put it.  I never had a place to keep it before, so now that I do, maybe I want to keep what’s important to me.  Did you ever think of that?” Jack said.  His voice had a sharp edge, but Mac didn’t heed the warning tone.

“It can’t be that important,” Mac said.  “Some of these boxes look like they haven’t even been opened.”  He reached for the nearest box.  “What do you have in here, anyway?”

Jack put a hand on Mac’s arm to stop him.  “It’s personal.”

“I’m your boyfriend, Jack.  How personal can it be that you don’t want me to see?”  Mac knew he was being kind of an ass, but he was fed up with Jack’s apparent hoarding tendencies.

Jack dropped his hand.  “Fine,” he said, resigned.  “Take a look if you really want to.”

Mac opened the box.  It was full of scrapbooks.  Mac reached for the first one but hesitated.  Jack waved a hand.  “Go on.  Open it.”

Mac flipped it open.  The first page had a picture of him and Jack when they first met in Afghanistan.  Jack had his arm around Mac’s waist and was waving at the camera.  Mac had an indulgent look on his face, as if he was just putting up with Jack’s ridiculousness. They’d gotten off to a rocky start—Mac thought Jack was a meathead, and Jack thought Mac was an upstart kid—but by the end of the mission, they had really hit it off.  Mac didn’t know it at the time, but that was the start of a long relationship that grew from friendship to love and would hopefully last the rest of their lives.

Mac flipped through the rest of the book.  It was all pictures of him and Jack, some with their friends, but mostly just of the two of them.  The friendship, and later, the love, shone through clearly.  Mac found one of his favorite pictures near the end, the one he had as his lock screen on his phone.  Bozer had taken it just a couple of weeks ago.  Mac and Jack had fallen asleep on the couch watching Die Hard.  Jack’s head was on Mac’s shoulder, and Mac’s head was resting on Jack’s.  The younger man had his arm wrapped around his boyfriend’s shoulders.  They were both so vulnerable, so open, like that.  It made Mac wish things were always like that, and he treasured the memory.   Scattered among the pictures were all the birthday, anniversary, and Valentine’s cards Mac had ever given Jack.  Mac was moved beyond words.  Jack had saved all these memories of them.  Okay, this box could stay.  But there was still the matter of all the others.

“So, what about the rest of these?  Surely, they’re not all important.” Mac said, gruffly, to cover the emotions he was feeling.  He was feeling more and more like a jerk, but he wasn’t ready to give up the fight.

Jack clenched his jaw.  “Look for yourself and tell me if they’re ‘junk’.”  His tone was flat.

Mac had a feeling he’d probably pushed the older man to his limit, but the younger man pushed on.  He reached for the next box and opened it.  It was full of random knick-knacks.  How many did Jack need, anyway?  Surely, some of these could be gotten rid of.  One of the objects near the top caught Mac’s eye.  He reached for it.  It was a snow globe of the Egyptian pyramids.  Mac had gotten it for Jack after the Cairo debacle.  They’d passed through the bazaar on their way back to the hotel, and the globe had caught Mac’s eye because of the sheer ridiculousness of it.  He’d gotten it for Jack because they need something to lighten the mood after what they’d just been through.  They’d spent hours shaking the globe and watching snow fall on the pyramids, laughing hysterically.  It wasn’t really that funny, but it kept their minds off of what could have been.  Mac had almost forgotten it, but clearly Jack hadn’t.

Mac looked through the rest of the box.  Some of the stuff he didn’t recognize, but a lot of it he did.  It was all things he’d gotten for Jack, mostly souvenirs from their missions, silly things to get their mind off the evil they encountered.  It seemed like Jack had kept them all.  Now Mac really felt like a heel.  “Are these all from me?” he asked around the lump in his throat.

“Mostly,” Jack admitted.  “Some are from my parents, some I picked up myself, some are from my teammates from Delta Force, but they all have a story behind them.  Now do you see why I wanted to keep them?”  Jack’s tone was challenging, and it broke the last of Mac’s resolve.

“Yeah, I do,” he said.  “I’m sorry, Jack.  I shouldn’t have questioned you.”

Jack’s tone softened.  “You didn’t know.  But now you do.  I really don’t want to get rid of any of it.”

Mac finally understood.  He was envious of Jack, in a way.  Mac wasn’t particularly sentimental, so he didn’t have a lot of tokens like this.  He had a few pictures, sure, like his lock screen, and a couple of him and Jack and the team in his bedroom, and some of the more meaningful presents he’d gotten, but nothing like this.  He kind of wished he did.  Jack had things to remind him of all the times they’d shared, while Mac had to rely on his memory.  Sure, it was impressive, but they still faded eventually.  Maybe he should start saving things.  “Okay, you can keep them,” Mac said.

“All of them?” Jack asked, just to be sure.

Mac nodded.  “All of them.  We’ll find room for them somewhere.”

Jack’s face lit up with a grin, and Mac felt good that he’d been able to put it there with something so simple.  He never should have made such a fuss.  “I still think you’re a sap, though,” he said, affectionately.

Jack clapped him on the shoulder, still grinning.  “Only for you, Mac.  Only for you.”


End file.
